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How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries - Adam Savage

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Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed -- Eratosthenes' calculation of the Earth's circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light in 1849.

Savage says, “We’re all bags of meat and water” and that “we all start with the same tools.” Scientists like Feynman, Eratosthenes and Fizeau, he argues, just think a little harder about a question and are a little more curious. Do you agree with Savage that scientists are basically the same as anybody else? What other personality traits or habits of mind would be helpful to a scientist, in your opinion?

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